There is growing anger over people killed on roads in Birmingham after four people, including two children, died and four were seriously injured by drivers in separate incidents across the city in a month.
The victims were all cyclists or pedestrians, including a woman and child who were left seriously injured in a hit and run while crossing the road on the way to school on Thursday.
The other victims include Hussein Nur Teklise, 45, father of a two-year-old boy, who was killed while cycling on 16 May when he was hit by a driver who failed to stop after the collision.
A 12-year-old boy, named locally as Azaan Khan, was killed on 8 June while cycling through South Yardley, before a 32-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and being unfit to drive through drugs.
On 30 May, a four-year-old boy was killed after being hit by a driver in Erdington, not far from where in a separate incident a cyclist was killed in a hit and run the following day.
“It feels lawless sometimes because people are driving at terrifying speeds. It’s just got really scary recently, it feels like an epidemic of bad driving,” said Rachel Segal Hamilton, part of the Better Streets for Birmingham campaign.
“We’re seeing the results of a lack of enforcement and lack of safe infrastructure with people dying and getting seriously injured.”
“What we’re living through is an emergency but it hasn’t been called that by the people with the power to change things. It requires an emergency response,” added Matthew MacDonald, a fellow campaigner.
Hundreds of local residents attended a demonstration led by the campaign group on Sunday in Kings Heath, south Birmingham, near to where the woman and child were injured crossing the road, to demand better behaviour from drivers, enforcement from police and safety infrastructure from the council.
Last week they published an open letter to the city council calling for the delivery of cycling and walking infrastructure schemes to be brought forward to 2025 from 2027, urging leaders to use the “Games mindset” employed to deliver the Commonwealth Games in the city last year under urgent time pressures.
John Cotton, leader of Birmingham city council, said councillors were working on refreshing the city’s road safety strategy with measures including reducing 40mph urban roads to 30mph and increased “green times” for active travel at junctions and crossings.
“The council is horrified and saddened by the recent tragic incidents on the city’s roads involving cyclists and pedestrians,” he said. “We agree that we cannot wait for new infrastructure … We need to move far more quickly if we are to meet the range of challenges currently facing the city.”
Adam Tranter, cycling and walking commissioner for West Midlands combined authority, said undoing Birmingham’s history as the UK’s “motor city” was a big challenge.
“There’s a whole ecosystem of car culture that has gone too far and is now stopping people from travelling,” he said. “Walking to school or going to get a pint of milk on your bike should not be a dangerous endeavour. We need a much more robust and urgent response because we can’t as a society accept this as normal.”
Tranter said he was pushing the police for greater enforcement and deployment of officers in areas where cyclists and pedestrians are more vulnerable, such as crossings.
He added that he supported the council’s recently announced long-term vision to double the city’s green spaces and build about 124 miles of walking and cycling routes, putting it on the same level for cycle friendliness as Copenhagen.
“But we should bear in mind that that that will take a long time, potentially decades, to deliver,” he said. “We already have the tools and funding now to make a difference, and unless we change, unfortunately, it will keep happening.”
In a statement, Ch Insp Rebecca Barnsley, from the West Midlands police central motorway policing group, said the force was working with communities to target “hotspot” areas, and conduct speedwatch operations in areas where speeding had been flagged as an issue.
“Since April, we have launched investigations into collisions where people have been killed on our roads as either a passenger, driver, cyclist or pedestrian,” she said. “These truly sad and tragic incidents have brought devastation and loss to families and loved ones and we understand that people are concerned.
“We are working to bring to justice those responsible for causing the devastation and long life impact incidents like these have on victims, families and communities.”
